Car Salesman Offers Gas or Gun With Purchase. Your Choice?

With all the news of car trade-ins, it was really only a matter of time before dealerships got creative with promotions. One in Missouri is drawing customers with a choice of a free gift — $250 bucks in fuel for your new ride, or a free semiautomatic handgun. The dealer who dreamed up the incentive says it's really about protecting yourself in tough economic times. "It's a choice — protection or gas. We got high gas prices, theft, carjackings, innocent people getting hurt." So which option is winning?

"Right now we're running 80 percent toward the gun," said the salesman behind the promotion. (I wonder if the lady in this pic chose the piece over the pump too?) Apparently the firepower isn't a novelty for his customers. "I get in a vehicle to bid a trade, there are guns in the seats, guns in the back windows. Everybody has a gun — there's no backlash."

One customer said, "Love guns, we all need to have guns. Guns or gas or fuel, I'll take the gun anytime." The dealership makes it all legal by handing out a certificate for the gun — the customer has to pass the background check on his own. The local police chief is OK with the promotion — just as long as the weapons aren't handed out at the dealership.

Is this harebrained or brilliant? Is there a problem with making a semiautomatic gun a gift-with-purchase? Which would you pick?

I honestly don't think guns are evil. I think it would be silly to ban guns, but personally, since I wouldn't/couldn't use a semi-automatic to kill anyone, gas would be more useful for me. I mean, guns are nice and all, but it's about investing in something that's useful, and I would rather buy a gun later, but get the free gas, now.

The question of gas or a gun is irrelevant. Guns in the hands of responsible people who use them for protection of themselves and of their family would actually help people regardless if they chose it over gas. There are stories of people fighting the Virginia Tech shooter (currently a gun free campus) and trying to make him stop killing more people. Brave people that put their lives on the line to save others. If someone were able to stop him during his rampage, maybe less lives could have been lost. People intending to harm others will get their guns regardless of the legality so, why not even the playing field?I have never been a proponent of guns but, I had children and realized that their safety was more important to me than anything in the world. The most dangerous place to be is between a woman and her children.

The question of gas or a gun is irrelevant. Guns in the hands of responsible people who use them for protection of themselves and of their family would actually help people regardless if they chose it over gas.
There are stories of people fighting the Virginia Tech shooter (currently a gun free campus) and trying to make him stop killing more people. Brave people that put their lives on the line to save others. If someone were able to stop him during his rampage, maybe less lives could have been lost. People intending to harm others will get their guns regardless of the legality so, why not even the playing field?
I have never been a proponent of guns but, I had children and realized that their safety was more important to me than anything in the world. The most dangerous place to be is between a woman and her children.

by the way silver i am well aware of gun laws in fact i would hazard a guess that i know quite a few since I have a concealed weapon permit, have been shooting since i could walk and my father is a gun dealer, now if you made you first statement out of sarcasm i do apologize i tend to be very defensive about guns and peoples ignorance towards the laws, and i am sure that there are idiot parents who would give their child the gun but they would breaking many laws and typically the kids that you see who shoot up schools and such, at least from my understanding, stole the guns from their parents often out of locked cases, the creep at tech notwithstanding

Having a gun wouldn't make me feel safer. I could see how it might make some people a little more reckless. I would take the gas. Does anyone know where in MO this is? I think it's probably closer to St. Louis since I found an Illinois news station that picked it up (but the video wouldn't play)WGEM.

"Crazy! This reminds me, didn't Michael Moore point out in his Columbine documentary how guns were given out at banks?"
Yes, he did, but he did so in a sneaky way. He didn't mention anywhere in the film that you have to get a full background check and come BACK days later to actually get the gun. Instead, he just wore the SAME CLOTHES and made it appear that it was one transaction.
I personally would opt for the gas. I don't know enough about how to handle and use guns to be a responsible gun owner.

"Crazy! This reminds me, didn't Michael Moore point out in his Columbine documentary how guns were given out at banks?"Yes, he did, but he did so in a sneaky way. He didn't mention anywhere in the film that you have to get a full background check and come BACK days later to actually get the gun. Instead, he just wore the SAME CLOTHES and made it appear that it was one transaction.I personally would opt for the gas. I don't know enough about how to handle and use guns to be a responsible gun owner.

Lol, rac...you might want to invest in some Kevlar, because they'll shoot you before you have a chance to set it on fire!Msucre, if you feel so unsafe in America because of the number of guns, then move to Australia where crime as markedly increased since they banned guns and let me know how much safer you are there.I would think that the people who are choosing the gun over the gas already own guns or at least know how to use one properly. Most people who know nothing about them wouldn't choose the gun because think they're evil...as evidenced by the comments on here.Okay, I'm done nitpicking...just a mood lately!

Lol, rac...you might want to invest in some Kevlar, because they'll shoot you before you have a chance to set it on fire!
Msucre, if you feel so unsafe in America because of the number of guns, then move to Australia where crime as markedly increased since they banned guns and let me know how much safer you are there.
I would think that the people who are choosing the gun over the gas already own guns or at least know how to use one properly. Most people who know nothing about them wouldn't choose the gun because think they're evil...as evidenced by the comments on here.
Okay, I'm done nitpicking...just a mood lately!

You know what would really make me want to buy a car? If it came with guns and a gun case shaped like a guitar, "El Mariachi"-style. Then, I'd use said guns to rob a gas station. If you're gonna rob one, you might as well do it in style.

Have these people lost their minds? People are not safer with more guns. It reminds me of the analogy of the Cold War that I learned in high school:
We are standing up to our neck in lighter fluid, across from our enemy, and we think that the more matches we have the safer we are. The obvious answer is that to be safe, we must all forfeit our matches.
If crime is rising, it is precisely the moment to LIMIT the number of handguns that are out there on the street. How could anyone think that more guns equals greater safety.
I don't think that it anyone should have the "right" to possess a semiautomatic handgun whose sole purpose is to kill another person. This is why I feel so unsafe in America.

Have these people lost their minds? People are not safer with more guns. It reminds me of the analogy of the Cold War that I learned in high school: We are standing up to our neck in lighter fluid, across from our enemy, and we think that the more matches we have the safer we are. The obvious answer is that to be safe, we must all forfeit our matches.If crime is rising, it is precisely the moment to LIMIT the number of handguns that are out there on the street. How could anyone think that more guns equals greater safety.I don't think that it anyone should have the "right" to possess a semiautomatic handgun whose sole purpose is to kill another person. This is why I feel so unsafe in America.